Over the past thirty years, camera acquisition of a golfer's club movement and ball launch conditions have been patented and improved upon. An example of one of the earliest high speed imaging systems, entitled “Golf Club Impact and Golf Ball Monitoring System,” to Sullivan et al., was filed in 1977. This automatic imaging system employed six cameras to capture pre-impact conditions of the club and post impact launch conditions of a golf ball using retroreflective markers. In an attempt to make such a system portable to outside testing, patents such as U.S. Pat. No's. 5,471,383 and 5,501,463 to Gobush disclosed a system of two cameras that could triangulate the location of retroreflective markers appended to a club or golf ball in motion.
Systems such as this allowed the kinematics of the club and ball to be measured. Additionally, systems such as this allowed a user to compare their performance using a plurality of golf clubs and balls. In 2001, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0155896, entitled “Launch Monitor System and a Method for Use Thereof,” was published. This application described a method of monitoring both golf clubs and balls in a single system. This resulted in an improved portable system that combined the features of the separate systems that had been disclosed previously. In Dec. 5, 2001, the use of fluorescent markers in the measurement of golf equipment was disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0173367.
However, these prior inventions do not provide an apparatus that includes portability and state of the art imaging technology. These systems also failed to utilize data networks, such as the Internet, to transfer information to a database that is capable of maintaining historical knowledge of a players performance and characteristics. Furthermore, a continuing need exists for a battery operated apparatus that is portable and includes wireless networking that further improves the ease of use.